The Masculine Wilderness Podcast · Epik Project

Justice Reimagined: How Empathy, Data & Collaboration Can Stop Trafficking Before It Starts with Kristen Hubbell

·1 hr·1 clip

Tom Perez opens by welcoming Kristen Hubbell and naming her as a good friend and the founder of Prevention Now. He frames the podcast as an ongoing conversation with men and the women who love them, work alongside them, lead them, and inspire them. Kristen returns the welcome. From there, she walks back through a long path in anti-violence work and says her anti-trafficking focus grew out of years of experience. The story starts early. She describes growing up in a rural part of the Pacific Northwest and remembers a construction-paper card she made for her father when she was a very young writer. The conversation stays personal. Tom asks where she was before this work and what drew her into it, and Kristen answers by connecting her early experience to the way she now thinks about prevention, leadership, and the people who join the work. Data matters here. She explains that her time in federal law enforcement, especially on task forces, taught her that agencies bring different cultures, missions, and strengths, and that the best results come when those differences are used well rather than flattened. Trust is central. Kristen says collaboration does not have to mean warm personal closeness or shared barbecues; it means doing the work together with honesty, respect, and a willingness to let results matter more than ego. That distinction matters. She and Tom talk through the idea that people can finish a project together, respect each other, and still not become friends, and that can still be a healthy form of honest multidisciplinary work. Curiosity keeps returning. Near the end, Kristen offers a practical lesson about pausing before reacting, including a story about sitting on an email for two days so she could get more curious before answering. That patience is deliberate. The tone stays warm and reflective throughout, but it never softens the seriousness of trafficking prevention, the demands of interagency work, or the moral weight of trying to stop harm before it starts. The closing lands gently. Tom thanks Kristen, she returns the appreciation, and the conversation ends with the sense that future collaboration is already taking shape.

As heard by us

A careful conversation about prevention, collaboration, and trust across agencies.

Tom Perez speaks with Kristen Hubbell in a conversation that moves from a rural Pacific Northwest childhood into anti-violence work, federal law enforcement, and the founding of Prevention Now.

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Why you'd press play

A steady listen for anyone who wants prevention to feel concrete, not theoretical.

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